cformsII
This is a fork of cformsII, a highly customizable, flexible and powerful form builder plugin, covering a variety of use cases and features.
Solid choice
cformsII is a solid plugin choice in 2026, with a few things worth checking first. It runs on 3K+ sites, is rated 4.3/5 and was last updated 6 months ago, and scores 63/100 on our health check.
- Momentum — downloads up 23.7% vs the previous 30 days
- Only tested up to WordPress 6.9 (latest is 7.1)
How does it stack up?
Side-by-side on installs, updates, ratings & support
Daily downloads
Download spikes usually follow a new release — each site that auto-updates counts as a download.
Rankings
Where cformsII stands todayWordPress.org search rankings
Live position in the plugin search, top 100| Keyword | Position |
|---|---|
| contact | >100 |
| fork | #2 |
| form | >100 |
| multi-step | #34 |
| sidebar | >100 |
Version adoption
Share of active sites per release.
Rating breakdown
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 from 21 reviews
About cformsII
From the official readme · v15.1.4Description
This is a fork of cformsII, a highly customizable, flexible and powerful form builder plugin, covering a variety of use cases and features.
If you want to use plugin versions older than 14.6.3, you should rename the directory containing the plugin from “cforms2” to “cforms”. But bear in mind that old versions should not be used in public systems, because they contain known serious vulnerabilities that are exploited in the wild.
The current security baseline version is 15.1.4.
Related Plugins
Really Simple CAPTCHA for cformsII provides an image CAPTCHA via cformsII’s pluggable CAPTCHA facility. To convert the old CAPTCHA fields to Really Simple CAPTCHA, please install the current version and activate the plugin.
Contact Form DB has support for storing and exporting cformsII’s submission data. Be sure to enable CFDB’s capture submission support for cformsII.
Old Tracking DB for cformsII is for those who do not want to switch from the built-in Tracking DB to CFDB. However it does not have any web interface.
ReCaptcha Integration for WordPress provides a reCAPTCHA implementation for cformsII.
Localization
You can see the available languages and contribute via GlotPress. Only some of them that are almost completely translated are installed automatically.
If you want to install another language, please choose its cell in the Development column, export it as Machine Object Message Catalog (.mo) and put it in the wp-content/languages/plugins directory.
Installation
Installing the plugin
You can install the plugin via WordPress Dashboard. It should show up by searching for cforms2. If this does not work for you, there should be an option to upload a zip file, which is available on the wordpress.org plugin directory.
If you want to install manually, please upload the complete plugin folder “cforms2”, contained in the zip file, to your WordPress plugin directory!
Upgrading the plugin
If you want to upgrade from the original cformsII from deliciousdays.com, please upgrade to version 14.6.0.5 first, make sure you upgraded your settings (resave your global settings and every form) and backup your database. Then deactivate the original plugin. If you want to migrate your tracking database to CFDB, please install version 14.14 and migrate it. Then you can install the current version of this fork.
The form inclusion does not work with HTML comments (<!--cforms name="..."-->) anymore. You have to use shortcodes [cforms name=”…”] now. Please change the form calls accordingly.
If you want to delete the 14.6.0.5 version by deleting directory “cforms” and you have any cforms-uploaded files, make sure you do not delete your attachments directory, which is contained in the cforms directory by default.
Custom theme (CSS) files
Create a folder in your WordPress plugins directory and call it “cforms-custom”. Move all your custom theme files into it. This folder will protect your changes going forward.
Check out the cforms CSS Guide on layout customization.
Frequently asked questions
Why do I not get any emails from my form?
Most probably this is not cformsII’s fault. Please check your WordPress mail configuration with a plugin like Check Email. If that reports not to work, you don’t have a mail server running or its settings are broken. Please fix it yourself, tell your hosting provider or use an external SMTP plugin (see the next question).
Where are the external SMTP settings?
That function was removed. The WordPress function wp_mail is used for mails now, which makes use of built-in PHPMailer by default. If you want to configure it to use an external SMTP server, use an appropriate plugin, e.g. WP Mail SMTP.
Why is the Form Settings page broken?
This is an incompatibility with WordPress 4.2+ that was fixed with cformsII 14.9.3. Be sure to use a current version.
Where are comment and Tell-a-Friend fields?
These features were removed with version 14.12.
Where is my database view?
This feature was removed with version 15.0.
Does cformsII expose an API?
cformsII can be extended via WordPress actions and filters. You find their ‘cforms2_’ prefixed names and inline documentation at the apply_filters and do_action calls. Additionally there is one API function that you can call directly: insert_cform. Please have a look at its PHPDoc. Older cformsII versions had an API called my-functions, but that is removed as of version 14.14.
Changelog
The tracking database feature and its view are removed with cformsII 15.0+. Your data still exists in the database. Please have a look at CFDB plugin as a replacement.
15.1.4
- bugfix: Fix XSS in hidden field
- bugfix: cforms2_delete_db_and_deactivate: Check nonce to prevent CSRF
15.1.3
- bugfix: Add wp_mail_charset filter to work around empty charset
15.1.2
- bugfix: Construct multipart/alternative emails
15.1.1
- bugfix: Use wp_timezone_string over get_option once again
15.1
- bugfix: get rid of wp_mail workaround
15.0.10
- bugfix: Use wp_timezone_string over get_option
For developers
Is this your plugin? Show off the numbers.
Add a live badge to your site, docs or GitHub README. It updates on its own — no account needed.
Best cformsII alternatives
All contact plugins →
FAQ
cformsII: quick answers
Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.
Live data from WordPress.org · checked Sep 27, 2026
Is cformsII free?
Yes. cformsII is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.
Is cformsII safe to use in 2026?
cformsII is a solid plugin choice in 2026, with a few things worth checking first. It runs on 3K+ sites, is rated 4.3/5 and was last updated 6 months ago, and scores 63/100 on our health check.
How many websites use cformsII?
cformsII is active on 3K+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 261,751 times since it launched in October 2014. It was downloaded 683 times in the last 30 days.
Does cformsII work with WordPress 7.1?
cformsII is officially tested up to WordPress 6.9.9, while the latest release is 7.1.2. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.
When was cformsII last updated?
The latest version, 15.1.4, was released on April 11, 2026 (6 months ago).
Who makes cformsII?
cformsII is developed and maintained by bgermann.
What are the best alternatives to cformsII?
The most popular alternatives to cformsII are Flamingo (800K+ installs), Contact Form 7 add confirm (50K+ installs) and WPZOOM Forms (10K+ installs).
Powered by PageForge
Want thousands of pages that rank like these? Build them in an afternoon.
This directory runs on the same engine as PageForge. Turn any spreadsheet, CSV or API into thousands of fast, SEO-ready WordPress pages — with schema, internal links and AI-written copy baked in.
- CSV, Google Sheets & API data sources
- AI content, schema & internal links per page
- Works with Elementor, Gutenberg, Yoast & Rank Math
- Free on WordPress.org — no credit card
